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A D D K E S S 



DELIVERED BEFORE 



THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE 



OF THE 



h\i nf |^Etiii0i)litEEifl, 



FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE MECHANIC ARTS, 



AT THE CLOSE OF THEIR 



Dighteeifttli Dxhibition oi* American Maniiiactures. 



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BY HON. JOSEPH RrlNaERSOLL. 



OCTOBER, 1848. 



CoPHIL ADELPHIA: 

KINa & BAIRD, PRINTERS, 9 aEORGE STREET. 

1848. 



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ADDRESS. 



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No department of useful improvement can be expected to prosper 
without public encouragement. The tardy progress of unassisted indi- 
vidual industry and skill, however well directed and unwearied, can 
with difficulty withstand surrounding rivalship, even when it has been 
fortunate enough to force itself into neighbouring notice and to excite 
limited and occasional reward. Of all the branches of mechanic art, 
there is scarcely one, some of whose developments have not sprung 
from comparative obscurity. Practical workings among elemental 
matter, by hands that do the humblest offices of preparation, suggest 
facilities which could scarcely occur to the theorist, however intelUgent. 
The eye beholding a finished performance, well adjusted in all its parts, 
sees nothing of the painful and prolonged exertions, the minute and 
almost insensible degrees by which the result has been attained. Yet 
these are rich sources of combination and analysis, and combination and 
analysis are the only additions which genius and experience can con- 
tribute to the voluntary and liberal productions which are scattered 
abroad by nature with a generous hand. 

Pecuniary returns are necessary objects of mechanical pursuit. 'Bat 
they are not the only or the principal inducements to honest industry. 
In its cherished prospect shines the clear light of Fame ; and many an 
obscure intellect is brightened into glorious capacity by reflections from 
the enduring names of Watt and Arkwright and Fulton, once humble 
as its own, but now belonging to the acknowledged benefactors of 
mankind. Associations such as this can alone furnish opportunities 
for early distinction. They combine intelligence, experience, scientific 
knowledge, practical skill, and (haply) wealth. They draw forth from 
obscurity native merit and bring it into comparison with merit of its kind. 
If it bear the touchstone and prove of current worth, they cheer it on to 
redoubled energy, and leave it only when, secure in the possession of 
inherent and acquired strength, it can defy the bickerings of disap- 
pointed envy, and triumph in approved success. 



These are in a word the objects of an Institution which in asking 
attention to every thing around us, performs a leading duty of its orga- 
nization, and invites by a direct appeal to the senses, assistance from a 
well judging community. This is its proud display, its accomplishment 
— which yearly crowns a long career of modest and retiring efforts. 
Meetings monthly held with access to two thousand members, for mutual 
improvement ; a library of gradual but certain growth ; cabinets of 
objects for instruction ; lectures connected with the Mechanic arts, natural 
Philosophy, and Chemistry, open not only to immediate members, but 
to alumni of distinguished seminaries, the University of Pennsylvania 
and the High School of Philadelphia ; and a monthly journal replete 
with varied matter to instruct and guide, now attaining its 275th number; 
these are preliminaries to an annual exhibition, the Eighteenth being 
now before us in all its admirable arrangement and teeming usefulness. 

The Franklin Institute, if not the earliest association for the popular 
diffusion of science in its application to Mechanism, was the first to 
establish these periodical exhibitions of American Manufactures. An 
example so full of advantages to the mechanical community, has long 
been followed in the populous and older cities of the Atlantic border. 
It has now spread far into the interior. The city of Chicago, numbering 
twenty thousand inhabitants, after an existence as a town of some six- 
teen years, is about to make its second effort of a similar character. 
Were the practice which is so well established possessed of no other 
claims to merit, it would serve to collect and record from year to year 
authentic proofs of the progress of improvement. Of our own it may be 
said, that each succeeding effort, in some respects, outruns its predecessor; 
and each new increase in novelty and advancement, is greater, in com- 
parison than the last. The practice serves, besides, to invite public 
attention ; to stir up languid interest ; to show what is possible by pro- 
ducing what is done ; to stimulate exertion ; to reward enterprise and 
industry; to prevtnt error; to fix a just estimate on the manifold pro- 
ductions of mechanic skill and bring it into notice ; and to unfold the 
principles and the power of labor. 

In the present display, there is distinguished merit. Particular excel- 
lences have been officially announced and will be duly appreciated. On 
an occasion when much is presented in individual branches for applai:j;se, 
a casual observer might be struck with the absence of others in which 
our manufacturers are known to excel. It is matter not less worthy of 
remark, that these spacious halls would readily accommodate far more 
numerous specimens of skill than are now contributed. A temporary 
building, erected for a similar exhibition in Paris in the Champs Ely sees, 
has received the offerings of more than four thousand manufacturers. 
Perhaps patriotic artizans among us are disposed to impute to the public 
a lack of interest in the labors of the Institute. If a small proportion 
of the spirit which distinguishes any one of those sources which have 
been enumerated of its vital existence, those ingredients of a consistent 
and harmonious union, were manifested on each returning anniversary 
by a general indulgence of laudable and pleasing curiosity, the regret 
lately expressed by a distinguished foreigner, now happily identified 
with the science of the country, might soon cease to have support. He 



was surprised to find the total want of extensive Museums amongst us : 
those mute but expressive and eloquent teachers of otherwise inscruta- 
ble lessons of philosophy. Let public liberality contribute what would 
supply this valuable addition to the machinery wielded for public good 
by the Franklin Institute, and infinite zest will be infused into the ardor 
with Avhich its immediate laborers are already animated. 

There is no species of talent, no form of available and meritorious 
exertion, that is not at some stage of advancement, confirmed in its hopes 
and strengthened in its assurance by the favor of an enlightened public. 
Of all descriptions of merit, none more clearly exhibits or more honestly 
deserves whatever encouragement it can receive, than that which is 
founded in mechanic skill. Its exercises and illustrations are altogether 
so practical, that there is scarcely room for deception in theory. The 
use and application are so general, and so familiar to every one, that it 
is almost impossible that any one should be misled by what in other 
branches of employment would be called empiricism or quackery. If 
error chance to find its way into a single quarter, truth with its disin- 
fecting properties is distributed among a thousand and a thousand hands. 
Whatever sagacity may lie at the root of mechanic skill, how patient 
soever may have been the exertions by which it has arrived at excel- 
lence, it is for the most part applied to the ordinary purposes of life, is 
transparent in its exercise, and places infallible tests of failure or success 
within the reach of the commonest observation. When philosophy shall 
have done all it can for mechanism, it will find itself repaid by the moral 
lesson taught in return by mechanism, that power acting directly and 
without circumvention will produce the greatest effect. Different rea- 
sons concur in giving truth and importance to these suggestions among 
ourselves. No separate class exists among us aloof from the necessities 
of some description of toil, and from direct personal acquaintance with 
the fruits of industry. It has been the pride too of our countrymen to 
give practical efficacy not only to their own inventions, but to those of 
foreign birth, which coming into sickly and abortive life elsewhere, have 
remained for the want of a keener perception and more practical adroit- 
ness, objects of unprofitable labor or curious speculation, until both of 
the requisite deficiencies have been supphed. Possibly a more minute 
subdivision of labor, which has its unquestioned advantages abroad, 
may contribute to this result. Of the fact itself, one or two well known 
instances will suffice for proof Our people are in the habit of turning 
their hands to any thing. Pioneers of the forest, the same axe wielded 
by the same arm fells the first tree, fashions the log into a wooden 
wall, cuts the tree into a boat, shapes the bean pole, and battles Avith 
the savage. Steam engines were long usefully employed for certain 
purposes in England. Captain Thomas Savery building upon still 
earlier discoveries, and especially those of Brancas, a modern Roman 
philosopher, obtained a patent for his invention in 1698, and it was 
applied to pumping water out of the Cornish mines and raising from 
them the ore. Newcomen improved the machinery in 1705; and Beigh- 
ton simplified its movements in 1717. There it stood for half a century, 
when James Watt, a Scotchman, added great improvements, and it was 
brought, as is known to every body, into extensive use in mining, as 



well as for working in mechanical and manufacturing utility. But the 
effectual application of it to navigation was reserved for a Lancaster 
county mechanic. We have seen too the progress of the Magnetic 
Telegraph. Not its progress through space, for that defies the optics of 
thought itself, outstrips in rapidity the chariot of the sun, reaches a 
western destination while the hand of the dial goes backward without 
a miracle, performs its gigantic journeys according to every known 
means of computation in less than no time, and now, mainly by the 
experiments of one of the most accomplished associates of the Franklin 
Institute, ascertains the longitude with almost unerring percision. By 
its wonderful influence, results of the recent election from various places, 
all of them hundreds of miles distant, were known in Philadelphia at an 
earlier moment than similar intelligence from the polls in the heart of 
the city. The progress of the discovery as a practical thing is the cir- 
cumstance most worthy of notice. One of the Journals of the day 
quotes from Arthur Young's travels in France from 17S7 to 1789 the 
description of " a remarkable discovery in electricity by M. Lomond." 
Wires connecting two cylindrical cases and electrometers, in apartments 
distant from each other, communicated signs or corresponding motions 
of a pith ball, from which the words were written down which they 
indicated ; thus showing an alphabet of motions. The length of wires, 
it is added, makes no difference in the effect : " a correspondence might 
be carried on, at any distance ; within or without a besieged town for 
instance ; or for a purpose much more worthy and a thousand times 
more harmless between two towns prohibited or prevented from any 
better connexion.'' More than sixty years have elapsed since this 
imperfect instrument was made and thus described. But yesterday, its 
development has become the wonder of the world. What proportion of 
its adaptation to useful purposes belongs to ourselves especially, it is not 
necessary to ascertain. Much perhaps may be claimed by different 
intellects. European intelligence certainly laid a broad basis in the 
science of electro magnetism nearly thirty years ago, and in the subse- 
quent discovery of the electro magnet. The use of an attractive power 
to write in legible characters is asserted to be an invention of our own. 
What will scepticism say in palliation of a doubt of the omnipresence of 
Deity when it finds that mortal enginery can vibrate responsive thought 
no matter how remote with a delay from its conception only sufficient 
to give it utterance ? Distance increased in Arithmetical proportion is 
more than counteracted by additions to the series of galvanic pairs of 
plates which augment the magnetic power in geometric ratio. 

The two inventions — the development of latent heat, which produced 
the steam engine, the modern lever of mechanical power, and especially 
of navigation by water and transportation by land, — and the develop- 
ment of galvanism, which produced the magnetic telegraph — seem to 
have been designed mainly for our country. A population spread over 
an immense extent, and migratory in habit and tendency, is enabled to 
hold immediate intercourse in one shape from the remotest distances, 
and personally to visit and become familiarly acquainted through the 
length and breadth of the land without loss of time, material expense or 
fatigue. The downward currents of impetuous rivers, that have no re- 



tiring ebb for thousands of miles, are stemmed and ascended with a 
certainty and speed, not to be commanded by other agencies, even on the 
surface of unresisting waters. A key to the great West, unlocks its 
mineral and agricultural stores, which in the absence of it, had remain- 
ed for most purposes impenetrable mysteries. A new world expands in 
wealth and wisdom, over regions newly redeemed from the hunter and 
his game, and shares with more advanced civilization in distant regions, 
its own exhaustless and invaluable resources. In other countries, the 
propelling power of steam is indeed of value, scarcely to be estimated, — 
here, it is indispensable. Every spot in the fertile valleys of the West, 
beckons its approach. Varieties of climate and soil are no longer the 
peculiarities of remote positions, but are brought together for the com- 
mon good, as productions of the same parallels of latitude. Majestic dis- 
tances are annihilated, or serve only to encourage moral elevation, 
without dividing local interests or preventing social and political har- 
mony. Every additional step in the march of improvement, serves to 
render more obvious these pecuUar advantages. The city of Chicago, 
at the extremity of Lake Michigan, is reached by the usual lake route 
from this place, in a journey of 1567 miles in six days. Works now in 
progress, the " Pennsylvania railroad," and the " Ohio and Pennsylvania 
railroad," will reduce the distance to 860 miles, or nearly one half, and 
will strike out more than half the time. 

Other illustrations wall be found scarcely less remarkable than those 
which have been adverted to. The tardy process of diffusing knowledge 
by copying manuscripts, was superseded centuries ago by the art of 
printing, which even in its imperfect state, was not inferior in importanre 
to any discovery ever made.- A press now in regular service at Leon- 
ardstown, Maryland, has been it seems in almost constant use for more 
than a hnndred years. What resemblance in performance do these 
antiquated efforts bear to that, rotary form of printing press, which is 
declared " to have produced on a trial experiment, twenty thousand 
copies per hour ?" Anodynes have been used, at least from the days of 
Paracelsus, and probably as long as medicine has been a science. If 
relief from bodily suffering be the great secret of the healing art, how 
can mankind sufficiently appreciate for surgical and other purposes, the 
modern discovery of the inhalation of ether ? We are told that it has 
circulated through the civilized world with greater rapidity than any 
other improvement of the day. (Patent office report.) And thus far 
we are assured upon the same authority, " the entire merit of originality 
and priority belongs to our countrymen " 

An increasing desire to improve upon what we already enjoy — im- 
mediate and visible marks of the influences of improvement on an ex- 
tensive theatre — and above all, substantial benefits derived from the 
practical character of our improvements — these are among the causes 
which will make our country the home of the mechanic arts. The 
realms to be occupied, and the work to be performed are disproportioned 
to the numbers who are to subdue the one, and to execute the other, 
according to ordinary rules of political economy. You overcome the 
difficulty by making a single machine perform the labor of five hundred 
hands. Undertakings, however great, cease to be formidable when 



8 

your means are as gigantic as your object : boldly to attempt, seems 
alone necessary triumphantly to overcome. Adaptations in many 
respects belonging to ourselves, are in unison with inherent principles of 
art. Mechanism is the joint offspring of science and simple labor. We 
are proud enough to aim at the one, and not too proud to stoop to the 
other. Mighty efforts of genius have been employed in suggesting the 
elements, and determining the rules which must govern its operation, ' 
while the mere docile hand of willing industry can put into practice the 
operations which are the fruits of them. 

Having traced the commonest instruments of mechanic industry, from 
the uneducated, whose hands have given the last touch to the sugges- 
tions of brighter or more accomplished intelhgences,back to those intelli- 
gences themselves, we shall have made but a portion of our journey in 
pursuit of truth. Beyond the proudest human intellects will be found 
a wiser and a holier teacher. Nature, the immediate offspring of the 
Parent of all good, instructs and teaches thein. When a seaman find- 
ing a bale of goods too heavy for his strength, calls in the help of his 
familiar tackle, and then raises it with ease, he avails himself uncon- 
sciously of the philosophy of Vitruvius, who merely solved the problem 
of the agency of one of the half a dozen fundamental mechanical powers, 
which nature had under a different name, placed in his hands. She is 
the prolific source of all inventions. Reject her precepts, and genius 
and industry labor in vain. The quadrature of the circle, and the philo- 
sopher's stone, will probably be discovered only with the elixir of life : 
because they are all at variance with her essential laws ; and perpetual 
motion must reconcile impossibilities, and reverse decrees as settled as 
the foundations of the earth, or it will remain an ignorant and abortive 
dream. Nature is as kind in her broad hints against working in the 
dark, as in pointing out true paths. Perhaps the pursuit of ingenuity, 
for example, in improving pneumatic engines, or those in which air is 
the agent of motion, might be diverted into more profitable channels, by 
the certainty that heat applied to the expansion of any gas, furnishes but 
a minimum of the power to be derived from similar applications to 
water or other liquids. 

We talk of the pride of science. But science manifests wisdom and 
foreshadows success, when it assumes its humblest attitudes. To learn 
that we are unlearned, to see and appreciate the great extent of power 
that surrounds us, to feel how much of it is unattainable, and in humble 
hope to try to reach the lowest limits of its lofty sphere, and make a 
little segment of it our own, are genuine marks of merit, and just aspir- 
ings of devout ambition. Science is nothing more nor less than a know- 
ledge of the works of nature, and the mode of making some of them 
available to purposes of human life. A development of her seeming 
mysteries is the utmost aim and end of scientific investigations the most 
profound. Philosophy in its abstruse and successful labors, can at last 
only hope to become acquainted with, and set in motion, the operation 
of her simple laws. The earliest and the latest lesson in the ample book 
of science, is inscribed by the finger of Nature. Her merest elements 
are full of v/isdom : hersublimest efforts are not without simplicity. The 
inspiration of the brightest intellects, has been traced to what may be re- 



garded as some of the most humble of her agencies. If a swallow's nest 
taught, according to the ancient architect, the art of thatching roofs with 
sprigs and loam ; if a stagnant pool furnished philosophy with the ele- 
ment of artificial light ; if the wet string of a kite unfolded the phenomena 
of electricity ; and if fruit falling from the tree demonstrated the agency 
which keeps in place and motion the universe, — what undiscovered 
secret may not yet reward a watchful scrutiny of Nature's familiar 
works? If minds partaking so largely of celestial mould were thus in- 
spired, more limited intelligences may be content to bow their heads, 
and derive instruction from the same unerring source. Words wiser than 
the examples of philosophy refer us, if we would be also wise, to the 
lowly example of the humblest creeping thing, that having "no guide, 
governor or ruler," " prepareth her meat in the summer, and gathereth 
her food in harvest." Yet wisdom when even thus humbly taught, as 
we learn from the same inspired teacher, is " more precious than pearls : 
all things that thou canst desire are not to be compared to it," — for " by 
wisdom is laid the foundation of the earth." 

The pride of philosophy must be contented to stoop still lower. 
Nature herself, pure and uncontaminated,is in the eye of reason, always 
exalted even in her humility. Her immediate instinctive agencies, 
deriving wisdom unmixed from its divine fountain, are only one degree 
less exalted than herself, in their vicarious character. Other sources of 
instraction must be sought, which having neither the originality of in- 
animate objects, nor the promptings of unsophisticated instinct, happen 
to enjoy opportunities and experience, better than those of the philoso- 
pher in his schools. The ways of plodding industry in its humblest 
employments, must occasionally be trodden by those who are at home 
on the summit of the hill of science. The hand must be able and accus- 
tomed to perform some of the menial offices of philosophy, that its minu- 
test details may be understood, and that examples may be set which 
none may fear to imitate. It was a wise rule of Turkish despotism, that 
the sovereign should spend a portion of every day in some mechanical 
employment. Mahomet IV. was deposed because he refused to con- 
form to this salutary rule. We learn from authority so good as that of 
Sir George Staunton, that the Emperor of China once every year direct- 
ed the plough through a piece of ground, dressed as a husbandman, to 
reconcile the farmer to his occupation. Charlemagne ordered that his 
children should be instructed in some profession. The Emperor 
Augustus is said to have worn no clothes but such as were made by the 
empress or her daughters : and Olympia, the mother of Alexander the 
Great, performed the same office for her warlike son. Is it a fanciful 
suggestion of the author of a book of much interest, which traces the 
dignity of mechanical employments beyond the flood ? He insists that 
Adam was a gardener, Abel a shepherd, Seth a weaver, Enoch a tailor, 
and Noah, (undoubtedly !) a shipwright. There may be situations in the 
life of any man, when the might of learning may become of little compara- 
tive use, and when the hand being turned to its primitive employments, 
becomes the master instead of, and in preference to, the head. Who does 
not admire among the brilliant accomplishments of some of his charming 
female friends, their skill and frequent exercise in the use of the 



10 

needle ; a purely mechanical employment, and which of those charming 
friends is without a greater or less degree of excellence, in a faculty which 
she shares with the humblest of her domestics ? 

Our researches will sometimes discover a high degree of mechanica« 
taste and aptitude for performance in unexpected quarters. It would 
scarcely occur to those who are familiar with the productions of exquisite 
and luxurious refinement in manual art, to seek for instructors in the 
heart of Southern America, and there among the children of primitive 
simplicity. Yet they would not look for it among them in vain. The 
Indians of Peru, occupying the Sierra, which includes the valleys 
between the Cordilleras and the Andes — the Serranos as they are called 
— are said, by the latest travelers, to have attained a high degree of 
perfection in handicraft employments. As goldsmiths, according to the 
work of Von Tschudi, they are remarkably skilful, and in this branch 
of industry they produce work, which, for taste and exquisite finish, 
cannot be excelled in the capitals of Europe. Various kinds of vessels 
and figures of silver wire — filigranos is the name they bear — made by 
the Cholos in Ayacucho, have always been favorite articles of ornament 
in Spain. The Indians of Jauja are very skilful in working iron. Of 
leather also, they make various things in beautiful style. A circum- 
stance, not inappropriate here, is quoted by the learned biographer of 
Nathaniel Bowditch, (whose father, it maybe remarked, was a ship 
master turned into a cooper,) from Baron Zach's " Correspondance 
^dstronomique.^'' The Baron, with all the world, went to visit Mr. 
Crowninshield's splendid packet, the " Cleopatra's Barge," on her arrival 
at Genoa, in 1817. On learning from the Captain's son, a pupil of 
Bowditch, how little was the error, in their reckoning, in making th^ 
Straits of Gibraltar, he inquired how they got their longitude so 
accurately. The answer was, " First by our chronometers, and after- 
wards by lunar distances." The Baron expressed surprise, and some- 
what unkindly observed, '* Do you know how to take and calculate the 
longitude by lunar distances ?" The young navigator replied, "Why 
our cook can do that ; there he is," pointing with his finger to a negro 
at the stern of the ship, with a white apron before him, and holding 
a chicken in one hand, and a butcher's knife in the other. "Come 
forward. Jack," said the Captain, " the gentleman is surprised that 
you can calculate the longitude ; answer his questions." The Baron 
asked him what method he used to calculate the longitude by lunar 
distances? His answer was, " It's all one to me: I use the methods 
of Maskelyne, Lyons, Mitchell and Bowditch; but, upon the whole, 
I prefer Dunthorne's ; I am more used to it, and can work with it 
quicker." The foreign astronomer declares that he saw all this negro's 
calculations of the latitude, the longitude, and the true time, which 
he had worked out on the passage ; and that all his questions were 
answered by him with wonderful accuracy, not in the Latin of the 
Caboose, but in good set terms of navigation. 

Connected, if not identified, with the principle of humbleness, which 
is another word for conviction that knowledge does not disdain the 
lowliest bed, is the principle of docility. Innate parts are obviously 
unequal. Whatever may be the cause, it is impossible to doubt that 



11 

inequalities exist among untutored human intellects, and in the facilities 
of acquiring instruction. One may receive the electric spark of wisdom, 
while another gropes his way tediously through dark and gloomy 
paths in pursuit of her celestial light. But all must be content to 
learn. Inspiration, in its literal sense, belongs to none. With this 
quality in the learner, a desire to know, and willingness to be taught, 
it is not too much to say, that a due degree of valuable acquisition 
may with certainty be made. Nature not only opens her store-house 
of instruction to universal use, and places the key in the hand of every 
one who earnestly desires to possess it, but she facilitates the accom- 
plishment of her generous purposes, by applying her suggestions to 
use, and sustaining them with resources adapted to local wants and 
capacities. Who can doubt the destiny of our own commonwealth 
and the duty of her sons ? Her stones are iron. Her soil teems with 
subterranean fuel, bursting the solid entrails of the earth, along with 
,the strongest, hardest, most abundant, and most useful of metals, and 
rendering it as malleable and far more valuable than the Ophir gold. 
Together they are the great means of manufacturing industry. They 
utter from the ground a voice, which nothing but wilful error can 
misinterpret, more prophetic and persuasive than an oracle. Let the 
rich jewel sparkle in the royal diadem that loads the brow of the 
monarch of its native soil. We will neither envy its possessor, nor 
desire to exchange for it our less brilliant productions. A single 
diamond found in Brazil, estimated at ^6224,000 sterling, graced the 
crown of Portugal. More than three hundred and seventy diamonds 
are said to belong to the British crown, supposed altogether to be worth 
£111,600. One ton of iron, wrought into the mechanic uses, which 
many a specimen about us modestly exhibits, has, in our eyes, a worth, 
intrinsic and extrinsic too, which surpasses that of all the diamonds 
ever mined. It makes both spears and pruning hooks ; is the material 
alike of the sword and the ploughshare. Its moral uses are still more 
exalted. It cultivates a spirit of honest industry, rewards the hard 
hand of labor, stimulates ingenuity, promotes national independence, 
advances the progress of useful knowledge, gives comfort and conve- 
nience to society, and zest and safety to the enjoyments of life, and 
above all, stamps the character of the age as one of solid substantial 
merit, above and beyond all that former times, in their wildest fancies, 
hoped for or conceived. What strange perverseness seized the ancient 
poets when they placed the iron age last and lowest in the catalogue of 
time ! Silver and gold are in truth the inferior metals to every useful 
purpose. One of the best of the ancient classics doubted whether the 
gods might not have denied them in mercy to mankind. Iron is the 
metal of sound philosophy, universal science, and advanced civilization. 
Apollo never would have given Midas asses' ears if he had wished by 
his touch to turn every thing into iron instead of gold. The primitive 
inhabitants of Brazil used fish-hooks of gold, merely because they 
thought they could do no better : and they abandoned the practice when 
they found that the right material abounded in their soil. 

Of all the varieties of the Carbon family (to which the diamond 
belongs,) the diamond is intrinsically the least useful. It derives its 



12 

charm only from its scarcity. It will not even burn, but with great 
persuasion, while its brethren of the coal tribe perform their duties with 
alacrity. The little piece of plumbago at the end of a scarcely larger 
piece of stick which form together an ordinary lead pencil, is a twin 
brother of the diamond. In describing a scientific memorandum or 
friendly suggestion, it performs an office quite as interesting as that of 
its more admired relative. We sometimes hear, in praise of the 
writings of authors of genius, that they are as brilliant as if they were 
written with a diamond. As it was said of the words of Rousseau, that 
they were so warm as to burn the very paper on which he wrote. The 
pencil in daily use, the point of which is scandalized by the universal 
name of black lead, has nothing of lead about it, but is in reality the 
same generic substance as the gem of royalty. Half a dozen philoso- 
phers, we are told, can make the world believe any thing : and unhap- 
pily when they have once created error, it is not without time and effort 
that it can be dispelled. 

Preferring our own productions to what the world is pleased to call 
the precious metals, and precious stones, let us deriv^e consolation from 
what we have. Coal is the agent of mechanism, iron the material on 
which it operates, and steam the power by which its effects are pro- 
duced. 

One is struck with the application of some of these endowments to 
purposes for which at a former period they scarcely seemed designed. 
In constructing boats to float upon the water, lightness of the material 
was deemed a necessary ingredient. Specific gravity is proved to be 
no longer worthy of consideration if buoyancy be attained. Ponder- 
ous substances are as capable of performing the other offices of timber 
and at the same time of withstanding perils by which vessels of timber 
would be speedily destroyed. When a small detachment under the 
auspices of the navy department recently visited the Dead Sea and 
sounded those asphaltine depths which continue to involve the impene- 
trable mysteries of the guilty cities of the plain, they carried with them 
from the shores of the Mediterranean two metal boats, one of copper, 
which was mistaken by the natives for gold, and one of iron ; and they 
purchased the only wooden one that was to be found on the sea of 
Galilee. In descending something like a thousand feet of cataract along 
the almost sanctified waters of the Jordan, their timber bark was shat- 
tered. Those of metal defied and triumphed over opposing precipices, 
and proudly bore the banner of their country on and through the dan- 
gers of the river, until it floated in melancholy grandeur on the surface 
of that sea, whose doomed waters sustain no life within their bosom. 
Thence the little boats were conveyed in safety back to the government 
ship to which they belonged, not materially injured by the hardships 
they had undergone. 

A becoming modesty has been commended to the votaries of science 
of every class ; but abatement is not therefore needed of proper self- 
respect. The two properties are compatible and of mutual advantage. 
Modesty is the crown of merit, and merit is in most instances the fruit 
of modesty. A sense of present deficiency prompts to exertion in order 
that it may be supplied, while toilsome acquisition satisfies us how much 



we owe to labor, and how humble would be our pretensions stripped of 
what we have acquired. Cultivated merit can scarcely fail to aspire to 
distinction, which is its incentive to exertion. Nature in prompting to 
honorable efforts and placing within reach the means of improvement 
and assurances of accomplishment, exacts in turn a faithful, steady and 
zealous performance of every thing that is necessary to develop her re- 
sources, and thus to manifest our gratitude and to deserve success. In 
far better language than our own, 

" spirits are not finely touched, 
But to fine issues ; nor nature never lends 
The smallest scruple of her excellence, 
But like a thrifty goddess, she determines 
Herself, the glory of a creditor, 
Both thanks and use." 

Yet another faculty of fitness to surrounding objects is requisite, in 
order to give full effect to improvement. It was not enough that whole 
empires should be penetrated by navigable waters, and that means 
should be at hand to ascend their impetuous floods. It was not enough 
that metallic ores should abound, coupled with mineral agencies to give 
them shape. All the riches of a luxuriant soil would rest in unprofit- 
able inactivity, and all the means for diffusing them in transformed 
and practicable existence over a smiling land, would stagnate in repose, 
if men, with suitable tem.pers and tendencies, did not present them- 
selves, to fashion and apply them. The faculty of matter is nothing 
without the faculty of mind. Willing hands must dig up the shapeless 
ore, and ingenious and active minds must metamorphose it into the 
material of mechanism, and then mould it into its thousand instruments, 
and with those instruments create the thousand fabrics for the perpetu- 
ally increasing demands of civilized life. The works of nature expand 
and multiply with the wants of society and the ingenuity of mankind. 
Look around you, and behold them in almost infinite variety of ele- 
gance and character and use.— Sa}?-, if you can, which of them all in its 
present state of beauty and apparent and approaching perfection, does 
not owe its finished condition to the pure elements bestowed by Provi- 
dence, either as ingredients and component parts, or as necessary tools 
and instruments in accomplishing the results, — combined with human 
skill and industry. This is the whole secret of mechanic art. Nothing 
is available without a combination, which indicates that the two things 
were made for each other, and that each must be kept in vigorous and 
active exercise together. 

Fortunately enterprise is the distinguishing property of our country- 
men. The indulgence of it is as diversified as the faculties or the de- 
sires of men. Some pursue the game of the great deep, and bring 
home from the bosom of distant seas their hard earned spoils. Others 
seek the forest, and delight to act the pioneers to civilization among the 
perils of Indian warfare and uncultivated wilds. Many hold the 
plough, and enjoy the luxuries of agriculture. Not a few chain their 
adventurous spirits to the anvil, the lathe, the crucible, the furnace and 
the loom, and breathe an atmosphere of labor, surrounded by almost 
untasted refinements that are supposed to belong especially to city life. 
But all are active, and numbers are keenly alive to the resources within 



14 

their reach. More anxious and active spirits probably breathe here 
than in any other part of the world. Restless and almost countless 
numbers vie with each other in struggles for distinction in some new 
discovery or untried exploit. A disposition so marked as belonging to 
ourselves, would seem to be derived from the adventurous character of 
that bold mariner who dared to explore distant seas, and brought 
European experience and civiUzation to these unknown shores. The 
destiny of nations has often been stamped by the tendencies of their 
founders. Rome did not more completely justify her warlike inherit- 
ance in her long annals of conquest and renown than these republics 
their ancestry in Columbus in the daring pursuit of new discoveries 
which distinguish their sons. They never tire in emulating by infinitely 
diversified efforts that exploring spirit which spurned the trodden paths 
of geographic knowledge, and firmly resolved to find in an unknown 
and almost unimagined world the foundation of empires, the latest, if 
not the brightest, in that bright circle of civilization which has been ex- 
panding ever since time began. 

To meet the enterprising tendencies of our people, provision is made 
by fundamental law for promoting the progress of science and useful 
arts, by securing to the ingenious for limited times the fruits of their in- 
genuity. The genius of our institutions does not stop there in its 
encouragement. It facilitates the acquisition as carefully as it provides 
for the existence of this stimulating security. No where are the temp- 
tations to originality so abundant or so freely brought home to the enter- 
prising as among ourselves, Avhether the exuberance of encouragement 
be for good or evil. Legislation anxiously directed to the object is at 
once co-extensive with the Union, and every where uniform in its invita- 
tions through all the sovereignties of the wide spread confederacy. The 
judicial tribunals of the country, actuated by a corresponding sentiment, 
and faithfully disposed to carry out the benevolent designs expressed in 
the constitution and the laws, have always given the most liberal inter- 
pretation to the language of both, in favor of the inventor. All things 
concur in happy contribution to the mass of inducement which has not 
failed to produce competition which is unequaled elsewhere. It would 
not be fanciful to believe that this combination of natural advantages 
and the constitution and laws with judicial concurrence and strong pub- 
lic sentiment ; in other words that patents and the general support of 
them, are among the most valuable promoters of national advancement. 
Some nations are stationary and have undergone little or no change in 
their condition for centuries. Others have degenerated and fallen lower 
and lower in civilization. Patents by quickening the latent energies of 
these stubborn races would have served to prevent their degradation if 
the people could have profited by the encouragement which they afford. 
Without such provisions we are in no similar danger. With them, 
under proper regulations the career of improvement is likely to be as 
rapid, as the subjects of improvement and protection are numerous. 

A patent is obtained where it is deemed due at the smallest possible 
expense. If the claims to originality appear on examination to be 
doubtful or ill founded, the applicant is at liberty to withdraw his appli- 
cation, and two thirds of the very moderate fee which he has paid are 



15 

returned to him. Every opportunity is afforded for impartial scrutiny. 
If at last an oiRcial ordeal be passed and the inventor is fortified with 
the seal of government, no barrier is interposed by it to individual con- 
test, and, it may be, to eventual overthrow. The pretensions of a holder 
of a formal patent are still open to free objection and defeat. A con- 
cealment of the truth as to the alleged discovery, or complicating a de- 
scription with unnecessary and superfluous matter with a view to de- 
ceive, or want of originality and priority, even in actual discovery or 
invention ; or description of it anterior to the supposed discovery of the 
patentee in some public work ; or a prior public use or sale of it ; or 
surreptitious or unjust practice in obtaining a patent, for that which in 
fact belongs to another ; fair and timely notice being given of any of 
these allegations, will avoid the grant and cause the patent thus unwor- 
thily held, to be cancelled. While serious injury is prevented to the 
public by monopolies, and to individuals by interference with a lawful 
use of what should be open to every one ; while precaution anticipates, 
and subsequent opportunity is afforded for correction and redress of 
inadvertent error ; the number of patents applied for and actually ob- 
tained is large. This is to be imputed rather to the character of the 
people than to any undue facilities in obtaining them which are less than 
might at first be supposed. 1531 applications were made in the year 
1847. 572 patents were issued during that period including those stand- 
ing over from the previous year. Among them there is of course infi- 
nite diversity. They vary in every degree of modification from " twine 
stands for counters" to "cannons," from " fish hooks" to " improved 
steam engines." No end seems to be yet in view to the attempted 
perfection of these last invaluable machines. Whistles, and valves, 
chests, pipes, pistons and stop cocks, are thrown up by the fires of in- 
vention like pieces of matter from the entrails of a volcano. Yet fatal 
accidents alarm us daily in spite of hundreds of positive preventives and 
assured reliefs. The frequency of application and grant may be under- 
stood from the fact, that although.the expenses of the office are not small 
and the fees charged to applicants are so inconsiderable, a surplus of 
fund derived from these causes amounted, on the 1st of January, 1848, 
to ^207,797-98. 

The application of these remarks will be seen when it is understood 
that the Commissioner of Patents, in his last interesting report made to 
Congress, considers his office " as the head and representative of the 
inventive genius and the industrial arts of the country." Without any 
desire to question the justice of this claim, it may be maintained that 
the Institution which has brought together all these specimens of home 
manufactures is an efficient coadjutor. It cherishes true merit and 
affords early, ample and favorable opportunity for display, comparison, 
encouragement and correction. Having taught the elements of science, 
chemistry and the various departments of experimental philosophy, 
every thing that in the sphere necessarily allotted to it can elevate and 
embellish mechanic skill, it kindly interposes to restrain the exuberance 
of inventive genius by awakening at once keen perception and wary 
distrust ; and it endeavors to guard against painful disappointment, as 
well as to foster prudent hope. 



16 

These creditable and well sustained efforts are directed immediately 
to the improvement of individuals who have already entered on a career 
of labor; individuals, young indeed, but with habits in some degree 
formed by a sort of education or the want of it earlier in date than the 
influences of the Frankhn Institute. Aptitudes even with them, may 
be imperfect or totally wanting, in consequence of the absence of suita- 
ble preparation at a still more flexible period of youth or boyhood. 
Might not the like influence be carried farther back than the age of 
apprenticeship to which they now extend ? Taste is a faculty of early 
growth. It is a faculty not only susceptible of high cultivation, but one 
that without cultivation has scarcely any available existence. It is 
acquired by opportunity and observation rather than actual study ; from 
models made familiar in constant intercourse rather than formal rules. 
Yet, when acquired, it is infused into all the exercises of mechanic in- 
dustry. External proportion, symmetry and grace, can become ingredi- 
ents of useful objects, as well as the sterner properties of strength and 
durability. To a certain degree the effect is produced already. But it 
may be carried still farther, and scholars may be found ripe for instruc- 
tion at the loom, the anvil, and the workshop, with experienced masters, 
and in the lecture room and the conversation hall, with brother manu- 
facturers and learned professors, with nothing to unlearn. The benevo- 
lence of Mr. Girard might, in aid of his clearly expressed wishes and 
without any change in its arrangements, furnish a nursery for this plan. 
The pupils of his magnificent charity will naturally be calculated for 
mechanical employments. It would spoil them to distort them into 
professional men. With an eye directed to their subsequent career, 
from the very beginning of their almost infant course, all the discipline 
they receive, might well adapt itself to the character of instruction and 
employment, which this institution endeavors to promote. Under judi- 
cious preparatory pupilage, the young mechanic having passed through 
his initiate stage, would come to his labors with double aptitude. He 
would be trained to master the difficulties of honorable employment, 
and to elevate its standard by suitable embellishment. Things useful 
acquire new attraction when they become beautiful. With the ancients, 
utility was regarded as the source of beauty. At all times, the two 
qualities without any interference may be profitably combined. 

It is presumption in one so little skilled, to bespeak occupations or to 
foretel developments for those whose benevolence has made them active, 
and whose experience has made them wise. The merits of the Frank- 
lin Institute are written in the history of its transactions. No pledges 
of usefulness in the future are needed beyond those of past performance. 
In the vast laboratory of Nature, ingredients are deposited for the uses 
of yet unborn philosophy. Time, which is the great unraveller of mys- 
teries, will at the proper moment make them known. Ages will not 
exhaust them. Let us hope, that when this generation shall have closed 
its valuable labors, successors supplied with ample materials, may be 
found to emulate its zeal and fidelity. 



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